Category: U.S. economy

American Loathing of Inflation Is in the Cultural DNA

Analysis This morning I was speaking with a gentleman who lives in New York City. He is highly trained. He has a good job. He is professionally ambitious. But, he says, these days he is struggling to afford food. After the high expense of rent and transportation, along with all the other strange ways the…


The Disappearing American?

Commentary “Help wanted” and “Now hiring” signs are everywhere. Flights, construction projects, and healthcare services are delayed—or unavailable—due to labor shortages. Hourly and monthly wages spiral. There is a growing disequilibrium between the number of available jobs and the declining pool of workers needed to fill them. What is going on? During the nearly two-year-long…


How Lockdowns Caused Chaos in Labor Markets

News analysis For most of these last 100 years, unemployment has been an obsession of both economists and government. This is because it has usually been a reliable marker in the business cycle. In good times, the rate falls and in bad times it rises. This pattern has often led to a goofy conflation of…


Supreme Court Targets the Real Enemy

News analysis The flurry of rulings from the Supreme Court has everyone’s head spinning. The most significant among them, even if it doesn’t capture all the headlines, is West Virginia vs EPA. The majority opinion is impressive but the part I found truly wonderful is the concurring opinion by Neil Gorsuch. This is where we…


Crashing Confidence: The Dallas Fed Reveals All

News analysis July Fourth is always a bittersweet holiday, a time to reflect on the grand ideals of the founding of American independence. But this year it will once again be impossible to believe that those ideals are still with us as a governing principle, at least not consistently, not even predominantly, certainly not right…


US Factory Orders in May Jumped Above Forecasts: Census Bureau

Orders for U.S.-made durable goods unexpectedly jumped by 0.7 percent, or $1.9 billion, in May to $267.2 billion, according to the May advance report on durable goods from the U.S. Census Bureau on June 27. The revised May data showed an increase in demand over April, which saw durable orders increase by 0.4 percent to…


The Only Real Solution Is Economic Growth

News analysis Market sentiment changes by the day and hour. But as I write, financial markets are starting to look just a bit better. The reason is embarrassing for believers in sound money. The prevailing sense—and this could change tomorrow—is that the Federal Reserve is getting cold feet in its stated mission to crush inflation…


Economic ‘Soft Landing’ Prospects Are Fading

The chance of a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy has come down since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points this month. Recession fears are mounting and Google Trends data show more Americans are searching for the term “recession” than at any other time since 2004. Because of the failure of…


The Inflation Cure

Commentary If you think runaway inflation is brutal, wait until you get hit by the cure. Last week, the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate on money it lends to other banks by .75 percent, the biggest hike in three decades. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the hike is necessary to rein in skyrocketing inflation….


The Inflationary Damage Won’t Be Fixed

News Analysis The public loathing of these price increases cuts across all party and demographic lines. Many people express the same longing: “These prices have to go back to normal. It’s killing me. Surely things will settle down.” This is a widespread hope born of disbelief of what has happened in such a short period…